Honor Bound

Honor Bound, Book 1

By: W. E. B. Griffin

Narrated by: Dick Hill

Length: 21 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

It's 1942. A Marine aviator, an Army paratrooper and demolitions expert, and a non-com radio man are on an impossible mission for the OSS - sabotaging the resupply of German ships and submarines by any means necessary!

First Lieutenant Cletus Frade is fresh from Guadalcanal. He teams up with Second Lieutenant Anthony Pelosi and Sergeant David Ettinger for the most critical OSS operation of the war.

Under the direction of the mysterious Colonel Loman, they venture into a simmering stew of German and Allied agents, collaborators, and government security thugs, of men and women hiding their pasts and plotting their futures - all in supposedly neutral city of Buenos Aires.

©2008 W. E. B. Griffin (P)2008 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Griffin's reconstruction of upper-class Argentine society in the 1940s provides an exotic and credible setting for a tautly written story whose twists and turns will keep readers guessing until the last page." ( Publishers Weekly)

Not Bound

When will I learn? I read the first book of Semper Fi, thought it was pretty good and when several more of Griffin's book went on sale, I bought three. This is the second I bought and it is awful. Nothing happens in this book. I stuck it out for eleven chapters, but lost patience.

Dick Hill is my favorite narrator and he did a good job, although I will agree with others I did not like the echo effect. If you have listened to any of McCaffery's Dragon books, then you know what I an talking about.

An excellent military thriller!

86 year old William Edward Butterworth III has been authoring or coauthoring military thrillers under his own name and various pseudonyms for 57 years. During that period he has released over 160 novels about one-third of which are available in audiobook format. Butterworth's best known pseudonym is W.E.B. Griffin. Honor Bound is one of many military thrillers released under the Griffin pseudonym; some are coauthored with his son William Edward Butterworth IV. The best of the books are written by Griffin alone.

Honor Bound is an excellent military thriller with outstanding narration by Dick Hill. I highly recommend all of the W.E.B. Griffin novels written without a coauthor. Most of the novels are narrated by either Dick Hill, Scott Brick, or Eric G. Dove who are three of the very best.

Worth the listen

The book started slowly but as you listen you begin to like the main characters, father, son, and the other characters linked to them. I'm not normally a fan of military based novels but will puchase other books in the series by this author. I would have given this book 4.5 to 5 stars with the exception that it ended a bit abruptly. I would have liked a bit more follow up on the relationships the author developed throughout the novel but still well worth listening to.

An Enjoyable Listen

Any additional comments?

I read the series years ago, now I want to revisit them all in audio format. About the only complaint that I had was that someone should have told Dick Hill that the name Jorge is pronounced "Hor-Hey" and not "Hor-Gay". That was just annoying.
Other than that I enjoyed it.

A s Spanish speaking lover of web griffin's books.

It was a good listen. I enjoyed it. However, for a book set in Argentina, the narrator had poor Spanish pronunciation.

Honor Bound

Great! Great! Great!

You need more books to listen to by W.E.B. Griffin.


Fred Flavin

OMG, the worst narration of a W.E.B Griffin novel

I have listened to several other of the books in this series and was fortunate enough that they were performed properly. This one however butchers every Hispanic and Germanic, name in it, I have never heard a professional that is SO far off in his pronunciation of the names, places and vehicles. So sad that it has been so distracting to the story which I enjoy when performed correctly.

This book should be reread.

Nothing to recommend

I got this book because it sounded interesting and had good reviews. Alas, this is one of the worst books I've gotten from audible.com. Let me count the ways.

The writing was bloated. So many words; so little action. That could have been redeemed by strong character development, but I found the characters paper-thin. Think of the action in a Steig Larsson book. Now think of the exact opposite and you have "Honor Bound."

Sometimes a book can be saved by narration. In this case, I found the style annoying. An echo chamber for "in the head" dialogue? Another example: the Boston accent of one of the characters was unrealistic, limited to a few obvious changes in vowel sounds.

I did listen to the whole story because I was in my car with no other books available. But it was painful to the end. Perhaps this is what purgatory is like.

I am stumped!

To summarize. The action in the book is minimal. The narration never seems to flow. The "echo" effect is terrible. This book probably should be read. The audio version is painful to listen to. I almost quit the book several times but became determined to listen to the entire book. Ouch! Twists in plot, what plot and what twists?

Look at other reviews of Griffin's books. I think it is clear, either read his books or choose other authors of the same category to listen to. How it got 5 stars in a review is beyond me.

Honor Bound

Great book!

Would like get the remainder of the "Honor Bound" series.